Davion Ace Mech Pilot Kitty DeVries

HI!

Heres the latest Mech I've completed for my Davion force!

 Kitty's trademark pink Mech

I really wanted to make the aces for my Battletech setting live up to the standards of the WW1 fighter aces with their penchant for highly customised paint schemes and even a bit of a nod towards anime for its OTT designs!

 Front Shot

As lance leader, Kitty has been instrumental in taking the fight to the marauding Kurita force lurking in Farpoints uninhabited hinterland.

 Custom Jump Pack

I realised when working on the mech that its original jump jets were missing so had a rummage in my bits box and found an old Space Ranger backpack and pressed it into service instead! Fluff wise its either enhanced or gives off an impressive roaring noise when Kitty activates it!

 Kitty's Claws, a pair of heavy pulse lasers

I decided to give Kitty's Mech a bit of a weapons upgrade so swapped out its original missile packs for a pair of heavy pulse lasers on the right arm and twin snub nosed heavy bolters on her left. It makes for a slightly lob sided look but helps make the Mech distinctive!

 Kitty and Mac, one of her Davion lancemates

The Davion forces on Farpoint are centred around a lance of Mechs along with a couple of companies of infantry with supporting vehicles but if the Kurita threat intensifies, it will probably get some reinforcements.

Kitty and Mac securing a drilling platform

I now have half a lance of Mechs to work with and hope to round it out to a full lance soonish as well as getting a second and third battle armour squad to give me a nice infantry platoon to fight along side the lords of the battlefield!

Its been a really fun experience painting up some Mechs and once I get some more large bases, I hope to be able to add some more!

All the best!

Ramshackle Games Tome of Tridlins

Hi!

Well after backing the RAMSHACKLE GAMES Kickstarter, I recently received the rather excellent Tome of Tridlins, an expansion to the Nuclear Renaissance ruleset.

Tridlins!

I also got some very characterful resin figures and the PDF of the rulebook too which was a really great deal!

Needless to say I haven't had much chance to peruse it but I do plan on resurrecting my Forgotten Highways blog to feature a Nuclear Renaissance mini campaign! Its a really excellent set of rules and the books are literally packed full of beautifully constructed and painted models, vehicles and scenery!

In other news, I have just about finished my Davion ace and once the base has been completed I will be posting some pics up here in all its rather lurid glory! I will also be posting my thoughts on Battletech and the old school goodness that some of the older publications have but thats for tomorrow!

All the best!

Kurita Strike Force

Hi!

Well heres the second batch of Battletech gubbins I've been working on, this time the bad guys of Kurita!

 Kurita Cugar Mech

 Kurita Scimitar Mk 2 Scout 

 Kurita Ronin Hoverbikes

 Kurita Infantry Squad

Kurita Strike Force

The Kurita force landed on Farpoint six standard days ago and are currently hiding out in the forested hinterlands only emerging to raid Davion supply convoys and hit unsuspecting garrisons.

 Kurita and Davion Mechs clash in the forests of Farpoint

Thus far it appears to be only a raiding party sent to disrupt the planet and tie down military assets that could be better used but who knows what plans the inscrutable Kurita have up their sleeves!

 Another Shot of the Action

 Davion and Kurita Infantry skirmish over a forgotten artifact

Interestingly, with some of the plastic Mechs I have managed to keep their moving parts free so they can be posed to a limited extent such as with the Cugar:

The Cugar 

I have actually done quite a bit of converting on this Mech as its original weapons were a bit feeble. I removed its original underslung arm lasers and replaced them with some considerably more chunky ones made from plastic rod and tubing.

Likewise I added a HMG on its right side to give it some much needed anti infantry defence. Its also had a shoulder mounted missile launcher added and the torso launchers have been replaced to give it a more powerful punch.

 Another Shot!

 And Another!

According to the technical readouts, the Cugar is a 35 ton machine but I find that the plastic Mechwarrior stuff has some scale issues as the tanks tend to be undersize and the Mechs a bit on the big side, especially when you compare the two mechs below::

Cugar and Black Hawk

Theres supposed to be ten tons difference between them with the Black Hawk the heavier but they look much the same size! Its not too much of a bother to be honest but does result in some odd sizing!

Hopefully my next addition will be a Davion ace Mech jock with her customised Black Hawk but I need to wait for some more bases to turn up before I can get to work on painting!

All the best! 

An Alternative Battletech Universe

Hi!

Well as mentioned previously, I've become interested in Battletech again but don't want to be bothered with the expense of spending a fortune on the official miniatures. Likewise I don't really want to use the 6mm scale as its more satisfying to have somewhat chunkier figures on the table.

After some thought I settled on the 10mm scale clicky Mechwarrior stuff produced by Wizkids several years back as it combines a decent level of detail with super cheapness!

Heres some pics of what I've got done so far:

Davion Blackhawk Mech

I'm using whatever mechs I have for the inner sphere forces but planning something a bit more spectacular for the clans and some of the megacorporations...

 Davion Stealth Light Mechs

The EM-4 plastic mechs are brilliant and very affordable too and are just about the right size for a 10-15 ton light mech. This is one of the areas I plan on diverting away from the official Battletech universe as I want to field all manner of machines, some under the 20 ton minimum and some way over it!

 Davion Di Morgan Assault Tank

 Davion Gnome Battle Armour Squad

 Davion Force Thus Far

Essentially in my alternative Battletech universe, the great houses are still fighting it out but as yet the clans haven't turned up. The tech level will be generally somewhat higher but still allow for lots of techno barbarians and so on not to mention pirates, mercenaries and even some megacorp forces who will be able to field limited numbers of higher tech designs and even the odd AI too!

Thus far I have a few Davion pieces sorted out and am working on their arch enemies the Kurita but hope to soon have enough sorted out to field at least a lance or so of each of the Successor States before moving onto the Clan invasion.

 Mechs on Manoeuvre

 A Patrol of Davion Mechs

 Battle Armour Supporting a Di Morgan

More Mecha!

The action will be kicking off on a forested world called Farpoint and involving a border skirmish between Davion and Kurita troops!

I still need more mechs, vehicles and infantry and am going to invest in some transfers from Fighting Piranha Graphics for the great houses to give my mechs and vehicles an extra touch but for the meantime, I have plenty to be getting on with!

All the best!

Summersby Retainers

Hi!

Well after quite a delay in finishing them, the first of the Summersby retainers have been finished!

Summersby Retainers

I'd usually be able to churn out quite a number of painted figs in this scale quite quickly but the detail on the Demonworld sculpts is really top notch and required a bit of effort to get the best out of them and do them justice!

Hopefully I can get through the next five a little more quickly though but its hard to believe that they are  15mm scale and mounted on 15mm square bases!

Instead of going for a super bright colour scheme, I decided on a more downbeat look with a white and grey uniform mixed in with some non standard gear to give them a bit more of a sense of being a down and out unit following an out of favour duke and living on a wild frontier. Future units may have a more thrilling colour scheme but for the time being, I am quite happy with what I've got!

In other news, I have been re-examining my Battletech gubbins and having looked at the cost of buying new mechs, am seriously considering moving to a different scale. Theres some reasoning behind this though, firstly the Mechwarrior Dark Age plastic clicky mechs are still fairly easy to get hold of and secondly Reaper is going to be releasing CAV in plastic too! Its a sad state when its cheaper to buy a chunky 10mm scale figure than it is a 6mm scale one!

For anyone interested, its well worth a peek over on SPACEMAN SPIFFS BLOG as the stuff he produces in 10mm is truly amazing!

All the best!

Conquest of a New World Oldhammer Style

Hi!

Following on from my last post, I have decided to try and sort out what I am going to do over the coming months.

I had thought about sorting out a campaign based on the Warhammer world but just couldn't bring myself to do it as I've never been too big a fan of the setting itself. Instead I am going to use Crucible with an Oldhammer twist!

For folks who have followed this blog or my old Leviathan one, Crucible has been a favorite setting of mine for quite a while, ever since reading the rulebook back when it was first released and it perfect for theming a campaign around!

The setting itself is rather interesting and bears a bit of time being spent explaining it!

The lost continent of Crucible has been discovered by a ship of the Queens navy which was blown far off course and lost in an impenetrable mist. The human crew landed and found a mighty continent dotted with strange ruins containing artefacts of great power from an ancient and forgotten civilisation.

This wild and untamed land is inhabited by Orcs which inhabit the great savannah that lies in the centre of the continent and they are not surprisingly distrustful of the invaders but word spreads and the other races of Ashkelon send their own expeditions to explore its mysterious interior.

Essentially its a fantasy version of the conquest of the new world, something that GW began exploring back in the days of 2nd edition of Warhammer and then forgot all about for over a decade and even now its not really fully fleshed out. Crucible on the other hand has some great ideas and is just the setting to allow me to footle around with both 15mm and 28mm scale stuff as the forces will be rather small initially, representing exploration parties of all the races.

This brings me onto the setting of the project itself. I am going to use my attempts to clear my lead pile and make the most of the space I have to chronicle the adventures of the Duke of Summersby, a lord who has fallen out of favour with the Queen and has left his ancestral lands in the old world to settle the new one along with his family and followers.

This will allow me to set some realistic targets for what I want to do and give me some goals to work towards with the initial plan being to paint up Summersby and his immediate retainers this month using some Demonworld figures from Ral Partha Europe!

The initial aim is to get a couple of units of 10-12 sorted out along with Summersby himself and over the coming week or so I hope to add a bit more background and a campaign map too!

All the best!

Gaming Space

Hi!

Well I am back from my hols, relaxed and ready for my return to work tomorrow but have been having a bit of a ponder on where I am with my various projects at the moment.

I seem to have been getting quite a bit of painting done over the last month or two which is great but have come to the realisation that theres no way I am going to be able to play Oldhammer in 28mm scale. Theres a couple of reasons for this, one being the cost of collecting a decent number of 80s/90s sculpts which due to the popularity of Old School Gaming at the moment has risen considerably over the last 18 months or so making it increasingly difficult for me to collect a force without spending an arm and a leg.

Coupled with the fact that I paint at a rather glacial pace, the prospect of spending months to get even a small force put together is rather unappealing.

Slow Progress!

The second and greater stumbling block is the fact that I just don't have much gaming space. In fact I can only just manage a 2'x3' board which makes for a rather cramped game.

Small Space!

I have however come up with what might be a bit of a solution! Firstly I will be using my 28mm scale stuff for small RPG lite type skirmishes and relying on 15mm scale for larger battles essentially allowing me to collect up a decent army quite quickly and cheaply and play a game by simply halving all the ranges and movement! 

Skirmish Fun!

Hurrah for 15mm!

I also hope to flesh out my small 6mm forces a bit too and actually get a game or two in as well and looking back at my old posts, I had a vague idea of getting some down at heel mercenaries put together using Battletech figures too!

A Squat Platoon

I actually have enough bits and bobs to represent quite a few forces of Marines, Orks, Eldar and Chaos not to mention Squats so who knows what I will get round to painting next. I suspect that its going to be important to keep varying it to keep me interested so I don't get bored!

All the best!